1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical bed, which is used by a patient for lying down and contacting to an upper surface of the bed for a long time, so that it is necessary to prevent the bedsore, when the patient remains in the bed quite a long time. Therefore, it is important to assure the air circulating underneath the patient's back, periodically to have the smooth blood circulation for the patient's back. Thereby, the patient, who is bedridden for quite long periods, is able to get rid of the bedsores, consequently.
2. Description of the Related Prior Arts
In general, serious cases who cannot move on their own, including elderly patients, weak patients, general (or local) paralysis patients, and other benumbed patients, essentially require assistance of a nurse or a caregiver for bathing and going to the bathroom.
Further, since bedsores may occur in patients who do not change their posture at least every 2 to 3 minutes, it is necessary to change a posture per a predetermined time interval or to keep the skin clean and dry while providing sufficient nutrition.
Thus, there is a serious demand for development of a patient bathing bed which assures easy bathing of the body of a patient and easy change in the posture of the patient to prevent bedsores.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0401864 is well known as one example of the related art to solve the above described problems.
In the disclosure of the above registration, a bed frame is vertically movably fabricated, and actuators are provided to enable angle adjustment and split rotation of an upper plate above the bed frame and an upper plate frame to support the upper plate. Free vertical movement of the bed frame is possible, which enables more efficient bathing of the body of a patient in a more convenient manner. Further, split rotation of the upper plate provides easy change in the position and orientation of the patient without forcibly rotating or bending the body of the patient.
However, the above described related art suffers from inconvenience due to a wet bed sheet used for bathing needing to be replaced with a new sheet or the sheet needs to be dried, requiring a separate apparatus and consuming considerable time.
Although a person has to carry a wet sheet in order to dry the sheet on a rooftop or in sunlight, the wet sheet is very heavy, causing physical burden and inconvenience to return the dried sheet again.
In addition, moving the patient to a shower room for bathing requires much labor of a nurse or a caregiver, causing physical burden and fatigue. Moreover, forcibly moving the patient may cause the patient pain or force the patient to assume an uncomfortable posture.
As another example of the related art, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0732559 is well known.
In the disclosure of the above registration, air is injected in a state in which the body of a patient is tilted leftward or rightward by use of vertically movable mattress units so as to disperse pressure applied to the body of the patient, or in a state in which the central region of the body of the patient is lifted such that pressure applied to the body is dispersed throughout other body regions.
Although the above described related art allows the patient to change their posture without assistance of a nurse or a caregiver, the patient may experience discomfort because of being moved by the mattress units. Further, a space between the bed and the patient is not wide, causing the patient to frequently come into contact with the bed, which limits the ability to prevent bedsores in bedridden patients.